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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 8 May 2003

Vol. 566 No. 2

Written Answers. - Taxi Licences.

John Cregan

Question:

176 Mr. Cregan asked the Minister for Transport the details of the compensation package to taxi plate holders; when recommendations of the hardship panel will be paid out; if, according to recent media reports and intervention from the EU Petitions Committee, he is committed to an enhanced compensation package; the details of same; the criteria used; and the timetable for likely developments on the issue. [12460/03]

On 17 December 2002 the Government approved the implementation on a phased basis of the recommendations of the taxi hardship panel in accordance with the Agreed Programme for Government. Any payments to be made as a result of this implementation will not represent compensation but rather compassionate payments in respect of extreme personal financial hardship experienced by taxi licence holders arising from the liberalisation of the taxi market. The report of the taxi hardship panel recommends the establishment of a scheme to provide payments to individual taxi licence holders who fall into one of six categories that the panel assessed as having suffered extreme personal financial hardship.

The design and administration of a scheme to implement the recommendations of the taxi hardship panel and the arrangements to facilitate the making of payments to eligible persons will be progressed as quickly as possible so as to ensure that applications are dealt with on a confidential and objective basis. In that context, I have already asked Mr. Jimmy Farrelly, who I recently appointed as the interim chairman of the Commission for Taxi Regulation, to progress as a priority the implementation of the findings of the panel report.

At the meeting with the delegation from the EU Committee on Petitions on 4 April 2003, I explained that the Government has approved the implementation of the taxi hardship panel recommendations and that every effort will be made to put in place a structure to facilitate the commencement of payments on the basis of those recommendations as soon as possible. There are no current proposals for any payments beyond the recommendations of the panel report.

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